Festive season safety plan for KZN
KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest death toll figures in the country during the festive season last year.
|||Durban - As KwaZulu-Natal prepares to welcome holiday visitors for the festive season, last year’s Christmas holiday death toll figures are a sobering reminder of the risks on the road, with the province recording the highest death toll in the country.
It has been reported that from December 1, 2014 to January 5, 2015 there were 1 368 deaths nationally. KZN had 282 fatalities.
For the same time the previous festive season, 1 376 people died in 1 147 crashes, with 237 crashes and 284 fatalities in KZN. Again this was the highest figure in the country.
Crash scene investigator for 15 years, Stan Bezuidenhout, said he did not expect people to change their behaviour.
The message of “zero tolerance” appeared to have the opposite effect, he said.
“We have an unspoken cold war between police and society.”
People complied with road rules only when they saw the police, but once police were out of sight, they deliberately broke the rules, he said.
AA spokesman, Layton Beard, said it was difficult to say if there was going to be an improvement this year. He felt there was still not enough law enforcement on the road.
Many accidents were caused by poor driver behaviour and people who find drinking and driving socially acceptable, he said.
People find excuses to justify breaking the rules by saying things like: “I know the road or I have been down this road like a 100 times,” Beard said.
Errant motorists were not the only problem, pedestrians also formed a large part of fatalities on the roads Beard said.
“People don’t consider that people’s lives could be lost.”
Tracy Hulley lost her son, Wayne Wolhuter, in a car crash on the Bluff on the evening of Christmas Eve 2010.
He had turned 18 just two weeks before. Her voice was heavy with emotion when she spoke about what had been “the hardest day of (her) life”.
Almost five years later, Hulley is still struggling to come to terms with her son’s death.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” she said. “I still find myself thinking he’s going to come home, it’s like he’s just been away on holiday all this time.”
The pain of losing a child was indescribable and Hulley wished it on no one.
She urged those who planned to be on the road this season to be responsible.
“Don’t drink and drive, or get into the car with a driver who has been drinking,” she said. “Don’t travel with an unlicensed driver or speed.”
KZN Department of Transport spokesman, Kwanele Ncalane, said it was not only the government’s responsibility to ensure road safety. The public also had an important role to play.
“The roadblocks we use are not all about law enforcement, but are about educating people as well.”
Ncalane said KZN MEC for transport, Willies Mchunu, tabled a plan for the festive season to the KZN cabinet on Wednesday. He said the plan focused on the N2, N3 and provincial highways.
The departments would be assisted by the SAPS. The department would partner with the South Africa National Taxi Council where they will inspect the roadworthiness of taxis.
Additional reporting by Bernadette Wolhuter
Daily News
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